Stone Age

California rock band Queens of the Stone Age will perform at Rams Head Live on Wednesday, claiming its title as the king of a genre known as stoner rock. Always looking to evolve and transform its sound, the band meshes rock, soul and trance into one rocked-out style. Howlin' Rain and Dax Riggs will also perform. Doors open at 7 p.m., and the show starts at 8 p.m. Tickets are $25-$27. Rams Head Live is at 20 Market Place. Call 410-244-1131 or go to ramsheadlive.com.

The tiny skeletal hand jutted from the sand as if beckoning the living to the long dead. For thousands of years, it had waved unheeded in the most desolate section of the Sahara, surrounded by the bones of hippos, giraffes and other creatures typically found in the jungle. A chance discovery by American scientists has led to the unearthing of a Stone Age cemetery that is providing the first glimpse of what life was like during the still-mysterious period when monsoons brought rain to the desert and created the "green Sahara."

The tiny skeletal hand jutted from the sand as if beckoning the living to the long dead. For thousands of years, it had waved unheeded in the most desolate section of the Sahara, surrounded by the bones of hippos, giraffes and other creatures typically found in the jungle. A chance discovery by American scientists has led to the unearthing of a Stone Age cemetery that is providing the first glimpse of what life was like during the still-mysterious period when monsoons brought rain to the desert and created the "green Sahara."

California rock band Queens of the Stone Age will perform at Rams Head Live on Wednesday, claiming its title as the king of a genre known as stoner rock. Always looking to evolve and transform its sound, the band meshes rock, soul and trance into one rocked-out style. Howlin' Rain and Dax Riggs will also perform. Doors open at 7 p.m., and the show starts at 8 p.m. Tickets are $25-$27. Rams Head Live is at 20 Market Place. Call 410-244-1131 or go to ramsheadlive.com.

I SPENT A CHILLING evening the other night reading "The Turner Diaries," a fictional tale about a white supremacist takeover of the U.S. government that federal prosecutors say inspired the Oklahoma City bombing.Published in 1978, the novel takes the form of a diary ostensibly kept by a participant in the events it describes. Those events include the violent overthrow of the government sometime in the 1990s and its replacement by a white supremacist regime bent on purging the world of nonwhites and Jews.

MONTREAL -- The hunter appears to have come to a horrible end.A slip of the foot on a frozen trail -- perhaps just as he was about to hurl his spear into the flank of some thick-furred quarry that would have fed his wandering clan -- and the hunter plummeted to his death in a deep glacial crevasse.The prehistoric drama might have occurred several thousand years ago, though, for now, scientists eager to study the human remains, discovered this month at a receding glacier in British Columbia, will only speculate that the hunter died before the arrival of Europeans to the Pacific Northwest.

PARIS -- In the mountains of southern France, explorers have discovered an underground cave full of Stone Age paintings so beautifully made and well preserved that experts are calling it one of the archaeological finds of the century.The enormous underground cavern, which was found last month in a gorge near the town of Vallon-Pont-d'Arc in the Ardeche region, is studded with more than 300 vivid images of animals and human hands that experts believe were made some 20,000 years ago.In this great parade of beasts appear woolly-haired rhinos, bears, mammoths, oxen and other images from the end of the Paleolithic era, creatures large and small and variously drawn in yellow ochre, charcoal and hematite.

Oh, those wacky Swiss.Now here's an otherwise sensible young man named Bruno Manser, in wire-rim glasses and of serious demeanor, who would look comfy dipping his bread into a fondue pot, sipping a mild liebfraumilch and reading Hesse in any cafe in Zurich. But, no.Bruno may be currently glimpsed stomping around barefoot in the deepest jungles of Borneo, dressed entirely in a loincloth, with rawhide bicep and calf bracelets. That tube he's carrying isn't storage for his pool cue: It's his blow gun. He's hunting monkeys.

By Karen Mazurkewich and Karen Mazurkewich,SPECIAL TO THE SUN | August 9, 1999

WAMENA, Indonesia -- The aging Dani warriors break into a rhythmic chant. "Wuh, Wuh, Wuh" -- a mournful greeting for the steady procession of men entering the village. They have come for the funeral of Walik Mente Dabi, an elder from the village of Jivika.Tradition dictates a pig feast, to be followed by cremation of the body. A son and elders sing the dead man's praises: "When we made war, he killed many people. Why did he die so soon? We want to still sing together."The women stay inside the huts, but their wails resonate in the yard: "He built gardens, and he saved space for us there.

BOSTON -- Apart from his undeniable boldness and virtuosity as a filmmaker, Oliver Stone has a genius for promotion. He's interpreted his fellow baby boomers' peak experiences as paradigms of America's lost innocence -- and sold them with passion to a large and engaged (or enraged) audience. Like Spike Lee, he's been his own best publicist, using political controversy to grab the media spotlight for causes that he's made his own. He's often mixed documentary detail with speculation or melodrama -- most daringly in 1991's JFK, which implicated Lyndon B. Johnson in the cover-up of a conspiracy to kill the president.

Good Lord! You use e-mail?" This is what the popular and good-looking Elizabeth Saltzman of Vanity Fair was overheard saying to the queen of England at a recent garden party in honor of the Household Cavalry. Elizabeth II had just said to Ms. S. "We must keep in touch; let me give you my e-mail address." The queen had added as an aside that she does use e-mail. "But I don't write them myself. I dictate them." The queen is surprisingly agile when it comes to the 21st century. She is known to use a mobile phone given to her by Prince Andrew, and she also has an iPod.

Throughout history, cavemen have often been portrayed as knuckle-dragging, club-wielding, fire-starting cavemen. But even a caveman can get a sitcom. The three cavemen in the Geico insurance ads will star in a comedy pilot for ABC. In the popular commercials, the prehistoric dudes act insulted over the running joke that "even a caveman can do it." The sitcom, if picked up for the fall season, will feature the cavemen handling "prejudice" as thirtysomethings living in modern-day Atlanta.

BOSTON -- Apart from his undeniable boldness and virtuosity as a filmmaker, Oliver Stone has a genius for promotion. He's interpreted his fellow baby boomers' peak experiences as paradigms of America's lost innocence -- and sold them with passion to a large and engaged (or enraged) audience. Like Spike Lee, he's been his own best publicist, using political controversy to grab the media spotlight for causes that he's made his own. He's often mixed documentary detail with speculation or melodrama -- most daringly in 1991's JFK, which implicated Lyndon B. Johnson in the cover-up of a conspiracy to kill the president.

Trent Reznor and his Nine Inch Nails have clawed their way into the angst-ridden hearts of millions since the 1989 release of their first album, Down In It. Currently with a hefty 20 compilations under their belt, NIN will perform at MCI Center in Washington on Wednesday night. Doors open at 5:30 p.m., and the show starts at 7, with opening performances from Queens of the Stone Age and Death from Above 1979. MCI Center is at 601 F St. N.W. Tickets are $45 through ticketmaster.com or 410-547-SEAT.

WASHINGTON -- In the lost world, when New York's twin towers were still standing, in fact the day before they were diabolically demolished, a friend e-mailed to suggest a column about why George W. Bush didn't seem to like his job. What's your evidence? I asked. "He doesn't look happy on TV," my friend replied. "Plus the long vacation. Plus him complaining about all the work involved in the stem cell decision. Maybe what would make him happy is having been president. But not being president."

On a snowy afternoon, on the edge of an Alpine ridge on the Italy-Austria border, a silhouette materializes in the mist: a concrete obelisk marking the place where a man lay down to die 5,300 years ago. Today's uncomfortable weather hints at conditions the man may have faced in his final hours. Although no one can be certain, it is believed he was surprised by a storm and sought refuge in a small gully. He leaned his backpack against a rock and put his head on a stone pillow to wait for the weather to clear.

Trent Reznor and his Nine Inch Nails have clawed their way into the angst-ridden hearts of millions since the 1989 release of their first album, Down In It. Currently with a hefty 20 compilations under their belt, NIN will perform at MCI Center in Washington on Wednesday night. Doors open at 5:30 p.m., and the show starts at 7, with opening performances from Queens of the Stone Age and Death from Above 1979. MCI Center is at 601 F St. N.W. Tickets are $45 through ticketmaster.com or 410-547-SEAT.

Visit these Web sites to find the answers, then go to http://www.4Kids.org/ detectives/ Who is the leader of the Stone Age people? Which is the longest river in the world? Which is the smallest section of the Food Pyramid Guide? (Go to http://www.schoolmenu.com to find out.) BLASTS FROM THE PAST From early prehistory to the 17th century, the mysteries of history are fun and fascinating. At the Museum of Antiquities, you'll go back in time to explore the ancient ruins, medieval collectibles and other wonders of yesteryear.

MONTREAL -- The hunter appears to have come to a horrible end.A slip of the foot on a frozen trail -- perhaps just as he was about to hurl his spear into the flank of some thick-furred quarry that would have fed his wandering clan -- and the hunter plummeted to his death in a deep glacial crevasse.The prehistoric drama might have occurred several thousand years ago, though, for now, scientists eager to study the human remains, discovered this month at a receding glacier in British Columbia, will only speculate that the hunter died before the arrival of Europeans to the Pacific Northwest.